I'm Just Sayin'

Sunday, March 1, 2015

1---Do NOT jump to conclusion we know who Jihadi
John is. So far, only the media has reported his identity, not any
government agency. The media may be right, but….Even such a notorious
person as “JJ” deserves the benefit of the doubt
until we are 100% sure who he is.

2. If ever there was a case for a change of venue,
the Boston bomber case is it. How in the world can this guy get a fair
trial in that city? I know, 5 different courts have said he can. I
don’t believe it..and IF I am right and
he is convicted, this would be a grounds for overturning his conviction
on appeal…and that is just not worth taking such a risk. Better to hold
the trial elsewhere and avoid such a problem.

3. Sometime we learn. After years of letting Nazi
criminals live here undetected (or because our government didn’t want to
know, which was worse)—several of whom lived into their 90s before we
brought them to justice, the US has recently
moved to deport 300 Bosnians, maybe involved in the same genocide as
the Nazis, only as recently as the 1990s. Maybe we have learned.

4. Maybe. Remember Attica? Perhaps the bloodiest
prison riot in US history, forever staining the otherwise admirable
administration of NY Governor Nelson Rockefeller. 40 years ago, and
yet..3 prison guards at Attica have been charged with
the brutal beating of a prisoner and are awaiting trial.

5. Remember those Somali pirates? They just
released 4 poor fishermen from Thailand, held longer than any of their
other captives. A UN agency negotiated their release. If you are out of
the news, except to your family, who works for your
wellbeing? Apparently only the UN.

6. And while we are remembering, how about
Tupperware? Once a staple of American life, its biggest market is now
Indonesia. Just thought you’d like to know.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Not that they asked me..but then, they didn’t ask Sen. Rand Paul
either, and he wants them to change their decades old state primary way of
selecting candidates into a caucus system. Why? So Sen. Paul may run for 2
federal offices at once (President and Senate) which is now prohibited.

Bad idea.

One, the system has worked for a long time, why change to an untried system?

Two, procedures based on people seldom work as well as
systems based on experience or objective factors.

Three, if you have looked into the Iowa caucus system, on
which Paul bases his request, you know that it has many problems. (A New
England style town meeting it is not, and that tradition would be better IF the
GOP must change.)

Four, why should we allow one person to run for two offices
in the same election? We don’t do it locally, or on the state level..and
that’s from years of experience (as well as fairness to other candidates), so
why allow it on the federal level?

It’s a bad idea Sen. Paul and I hope the state GOP will
reject it…not that they asked me.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Cardinal Hill, our truly great local rehab hospital,
announced last week that it has been sold to HealthSouth, a Birmingham
based health conglomerate.

The announcement of the sale, to me, was strange. It seemed
to come out of thin air; I saw no news conference footage on any local TV station, as if they just sent the sale story to the Herald Leader. If you
don’t hold a news conference, you don’t have a lot of reporters asking tough
questions.

And tough questions should be asked about this sale.

HealthSouth has a checkered past, to put it lightly. It was
formed by a man, Richard Scrushy, who has been charged with many SEC
violations, basically for cooking the books...but was found not guilty by a
local jury. He was later tried on political bribery charges, along
with the governor, convicted, but may escape additional prison time
because the Supreme Court narrowed the scope of the law afterwards. In Alabama,
he seems to have more than 9 lives in court. Most of these law violations
were in the past, perhaps 8-10 years ago and I’m sure the firm will
say "our founder’s gone, we’ve cleaned up our act..and we really want to buy
Cardinal Hill.”

Maybe so, but the headline in the Herald Leader said "all
services to remain the same.” I don’t believe that. I’ve yet to see a
sale like this, in any field, where everything stayed the same. It just doesn’t
pass the smell test.

I don’t know if there is a state agency that has to approve
this sale, but if so, I hope they look into it very carefully. Maybe our
consumer advocate, the attorney general, should do so. And I am surprised
that the Herald Leader hasn’t raised an objection, editorially, and run some
story on HealthSouth’s seamy background.

This is another great local institution we should not give
up without a fight, or at least knowing a lot more about HealthSouth and its
current operations and standards than we do.

Monday, February 2, 2015

A word or two about practical political news reporting to
you readers and my journalist colleagues.

Amazing. That’s all I can say. GOP hopefuls are
coming out of the woodwork to run for President. People you probably
never heard of (George Pataki for example.) People who the Grand Old Party
rejected last time. Rick Santorum. People who should rejected . Sarah
Palin for example. People in another field who probably shouldn’t be in this
field. I.E. Ben Carson

But as the cattle call increases,---probably because of the
nearly BILLION dollar kitty the Koch Brothers have come up with to support
their brand of conservative Republicanism, more candidates may yet
announce. Having covered 14 national party conventions, and presidential
politics since 1948, a word or two to the hopefuls..but even more to my
readers.

1—NO poll this far ahead of time has any validity.

2—There is no such thing, at this point, as a “front
runner.” (some political reporters will weasel a bit, and talk about a
“presumptive front runner” but that’s not much more accurate either.)

3—There are no dynasties, in either party. Each well known
candidate is subject to the vote of the American people.

4—all this wisdom of mine applies to BOTH major parties. HRC
is neither “front runner” nor “shoo-in.” Truly, I’ve seen political reports
recently that make me wonder if the writer was born after 2008, or remember how
a little known Illinois junior senator could possibly win against the
Clinton dynasty/machine/etc.

5—There will be an election in 2016..and we still have that
outdated, UNdemocratic Electoral college to contend with, voting machines that
are unreliable (chads or not) far from tamper-proof, bad local voting laws,
parties and candidates determined to hold down voting instead of increasing it,
gerrymandering in many, if not all states, Kentucky being no exception,
etcetcetc—it’s a wonder “the world’s greatest Democracy” gets an election done.
We have much to do to live up to that phrase.

Let us begin…but in the meantime, let’s have some honest,
accurate political reporting and analysis.

Monday, January 26, 2015

A recent letter in my favorite Lexington morning paper
expressed an opinion almost totally devoid of any factual basis, but one, I
suspect, a lot of people share.

It’s about Gitmo, and the suspected terrorist we hold
there—and have for the last dozen years.

First, almost none, if any, of them have been “convicted”,
that is, had a trial with evidence presented, their side heard, and a verdict
rendered. These people are all “suspect” and their actual trials may be years
away..except for a few who have been found “innocent”, that is, the military
and other US government agencies which brought them to our Cuban base have
decided, after years of looking into their cases, there was a “rush to
judgment” and these people actually are NOT terrorists. Problem is, in many
cases, they can not return to their homelands. New governments there, old
political and tribal feuds, etc would place their lives in serious
dangers, and the US doesn’t want to make a second mistake. So these
“innocents” languish there and have for YEARS while the US tries to find
new homes for them Once in a while a little US diplomatic arm bending
(likely infused with promises of aid and/or cash to these governments) and
there’s a strange agreement whereby people from the boonies of Asia end up in
Uruguay, or Samoa or someplace just like the home they knew in Afghanistan or
Iraq!! Hey, , at least it’s better than a barbed wire prison cell..or so the US
thinks. (What these “innocents” think we seldom hear because our government
puts serious restrictions on their attorneys, if any, or social workers, and
reporters who may talk with them.

And yes, after several years some of those cleared do
find their way home, and pay back the US for a dozen years of prison life at
Gitmo by actually, now, becoming terrorists Surprise!

Gitmo and the whole premise behind it may be worse that
water boarding in the secret prisons of our “rendition” program. It is a blight
on the American system of justice and the fair Play most Americans think this
country represents. But to compare those few released with the terrorists of
the Charlie Hebro tragedy, as the local letter did, is just plain wrong.

Gitmo’s prison and the people being held there should never
have happened. But it’s continuation, year after year, is even worse. Those now
there deserve “speedy trials”. (Have you heard that phrase before?) Those found
guilty should be jailed; those found innocent should be compensated and set
free.

This blight needs to end..but only after it is a major point
of debate in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

France has gone thru a nightmare, a tragedy these past few days---which we need to understand and support her.

I annually do one blog on how many journalists were
killed covering the news. It was 61 last year, with Syria as the most
dangerous. Already this year we have lost the dozen cartoonists and
staff of Charlie Hebdo to be listed in this year’s
toll. As a journalist I am proud to stand with them and say “Je suis
Charlie.” (I, too, am Charlie Hebdo.)

But let’s be clear. That magazine is way, way over
the top for America and our political correctness these days. It
couldn’t be sold on the UK campus, and its editors probably wouldn’t be
invited to speak to any journalism class. Do you
think Joel Pett could have a cartoon published in the Herald-Leader in
which he drew Jesus in a pornographic situation? But that is exactly
what Charlie has done, often, for the Prophet Mohammed. Maybe that
explains the firebombing of its offices two years
ago.

France is more tolerant of such over-the-top
journalism. It was one of her great philosophers, Voltaire, who
said "I don’t agree with you, but I will defend, with my life, your
right to say it.” That is the truest spirit of free speech
and free press…and it is the extremists who most often challenge us to
keep on with that support.

But, drawing extreme cartoons and spouting
unpopular expressions is one thing..killing people for their views is
quite another. And it is here that the political extremists like the
radical Muslims cross the line..as do many religious
fundamentalists,. Including some supposedly Christian sects.

Let us remember...as the killers left Charlie’s
offices, one of them spotted a wounded policeman on the sidewalk, and
killed him, execution style. That cop was a Muslim, his name was
Ahmed—doing his job to protect the cartoonists and people
of Paris.

In the later shootout at the kosher grocery in
Paris, a black Muslim store clerk, hid a dozen customers in a walk-in
cooler, risking his life for them. Before we condemn all Muslims let us
remember these people..and the chilling example
of a young girl who wanted nothing but to go to school..before the
Taliban got on her school bus and shot her in the head. Yes, Malala, of
Nobel Peace Prize fame, is a Muslim, too.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

There were many news reports last week, as the US
handed over more control of the war in Afghanistan that “our longest
war” was over.

NOT true—at least not in my perspective.

First, Ten thousand or more troops remain..and if
there’s a “surge” by the Taliban, or if ISIS moves into that country,
stand by for many calls for more “boots on the ground” again. ..as we
will hear if ISIS forces in Syria and Iraq seem
to be winning.

We should never have been in Afghanistan. The Bush
administration, frankly, deceived the American people..as it did with
the WMD approach in Iraq. Only here it was that “the Taliban is in
league with Al-Qaida” and is, therefore, partially
responsible for the events of 9/11. Not true. In religious doctrine,
both extremist groups did not agree. The Taliban had nothing to do with
9/11. But in the haste…and rush to war in Iraq, the US went along. We
have yet to extricate ourselves from Afghanistan..and
as the poppy fields bloom again there..we may yet have a War on Heroin
if nothing else.

But, secondly, what about the Korean “War”? The US
started fighting there in 1950…65 years ago, SIX times the length of
the Afghan war, and there is still NO peace treaty between us. We
maintain military forces there, and occasionally
shooting breaks out, and an American GI is killed. That’s war to
me..even though Congress NEVER declared war, and as a fact, has not since
the end of World War Two! While Congressmen swear an oath to uphold the
Constitution, maybe they haven’t read the section
on the power to declare war recently.

Wars are tricky things..but if we are ever to
understand them, and deal with them properly, the facts must be out
there. Declaring any end to our “longest war” is no way to help America
do that.